Staphylococcus aureus subsp. anaerobius subsp. nov., the Causal Agent of Abscess Disease of Sheep

A new subspecies, Staphylococcus aureus subsp. anaerobius, is described on the basis of a study of 84 strains isolated from young sheep affected by the so-called “abscess disease.” The strains of this new subspecies grow well under anaerobic conditions, but not at all or only very weakly under aerobic conditions. They are catalase and benzidine negative and form small unpigmented colonies. Anaerobically they produce L-lactic acid from glucose. The chemical composition of the cell wall, the results of deoxyribonucleic acid-deoxyribonucleic acid hybridization experiments, and the immunological relationships among L-lactate dehydrogenases demonstrated that these strains are closely related to Staphylococcus aureus. The type strain is strain MVF-7(= ATCC 35844).